Life is an Adventure – Just Live it! The Summer of Love Series 2016

A couple of week’s ago, on my ‘A Summer of Love’ poem, I launched a summer-long series of posts called ‘The Summer of Love’ and I now have a number of people who have come forward. If you would like to join them then please email me – vickywelton@hotmail.com – and I would love to have you on board. The love can be about your partner, husband or wife, the love for your children, your pets, your hobbies and, well, anything really! It can be a straight piece of writing or in poetry or photograph form. There is no specific day or time that I will be posting them as I would like to make it easy over the holidays but the series will run from now until the beginning of September. I will include links to your blog and social media channels.

So far I have featured Louise from Little Hearts, Big Love and her poem and this week I would like to welcome Karen from Two Tiny Hands. Together with her partner, Dave, and son affectionately known as Robot, they enjoy lots of outdoor adventures. Here she is sharing with us how much they love life – and it’s big adventures – together…

I love being a Mum! It’s something I always wanted. I couldn’t have got there without the love of my life Dave. Seriously, it just couldn’t have happened. We’ve created our little bundle of joy we affectionately call the Robot. They say the love for your children is unlike anything else, it’s totally true. I love my son, I love my family. We use the Two Tiny Hands Blog to document our activities and adventures…

The Robot turned one this Summer, he’s a summer baby. We love being outside and part of this means that we love to go camping. Last Summer we didn’t get the opportunity. With a newborn it never seemed practical to go camping, we toyed with the idea, but figured it would be too hard. Roll on to this year and things are a different story.

We took the Robot on his first camping trip back in May when he was 9 months old and it’s fair to say in the 3 months since we have had a blast. 10 different camp sites, 11 nights, a few in Scotland and the rest in the surrounding area.

Going camping with a young one has its challenges, especially now he’s crawling, but the experiences of being outdoors out ways any of it. With practice we have shortened down the time it takes to pack for a trip away as well as how we manage while away. One of us, usually Dave, puts the tent up while I keep the Robot occupied. One of us cooks, again usually Dave, while the other entertains the little one. There is definitely a common theme, I do childcare, Dave does the practical stuff. It works for us and we enjoy it.

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing my son crawling around in the grass on a sunny day. I hope that by letting him explore outside that we are instilling the same love for the outdoors that we have. I also think the benefits of fresh air have amazing sleep inducing powers too. The days when we have spent all day outside are the days the Robot sleeps well.

It’s not just about the camping either, it’s the expedition, the journey. Dave & I are cycle tourers in our child free life, we would head off for a couple of weeks on our bikes with a tent and the open road, no plans. It’s an adventure. One that we’ve not been able to do since becoming parents. We have to put a little bit more thought into where we go and how now.

We have managed a few trips on the bike though. We recently Cycle Camped to Malham Cove. It was short and sweet but has been one of my favourite trips yet. A chance to relax as a family without the pressures of technology. Here is a short video for you:

One thing is for sure, parenting hasn’t changed our desire to be outdoors, we have had to adapt and learn.Something that all parents have to do I guess?